Learn the History of April Fools

April Fool’s Day’s origins are a mystery as referring also as All Fools’ Day has been celebrated for several centuries by multiple cultures. Historians have then said that April Fools’ Day goes back to 1582, when France had swapped from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. People who were just slow to get the news or who had failed to recognize the start of the new year which had moved to January 1st instead of April 1st. These people were then pranked by others who would place a paper fish on their backs which referred to them been a gullible person.

Historians have also said that April Fools’ Day was tied to the spring equinox, which is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. It was said that it’s when Mother Nature tricked people with the changing, unpredictable weather. Ancient Festivals such as Hilaria, celebrated in Rome at end of March, involved people dressing up in disguises to imitate whoever they wanted to and also to not show any signs of grief or sorrow. It was consequently also celebrated on the spring equinox. All kinds of games and amusements were allowed on this day.

In the 18th century, April Fools’ Day had spread throughout Britain. The tradition became a two-day event in Scotland with the “hunting the gowk,” which had people do phony errands. Gowk is basically a cuckoo bird which symbolized foolery. What followed was Tailie Day, which involved putting “kick me” signs or fake tails on people’s bottoms.

In today’s sense, April Fools’ Day has made news sources to create complex hoaxes to fool people. In 1985, Sports Illustrated tricked a lot of its readers with a made-up article about a pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw fastballs over 168 miles. In 1977, the Guardian published a seven page special report about San Serriffe, a small country located in the Indian Ocean made up of several islands which represented a semicolon. The “perfect-sounding fictional holiday spot” with an “upper caisse” and a “lower caisse” main islands adding up the in-depth series of articles on the history, geography, plus daily life fooled many readers. Just don’t get fooled by those news sources on April Fools’ Day.